Some Ohio State-Penn State Tickets Will Set You Back $200

Penn State is joining most schools around the nation, including Ohio State, in adopting a structured pricing plan for football tickets depending on the game and location of the seat. But for 2014, it means the most expensive ticket for the Oct. 25 game against Ohio State will be $200. That game, almost certain to be held at night, is the most expensive ticket on Penn State's 2014 schedule.

Tickets for 2013 Big Ten champion and Rose Bowl winner Michigan State will be as much as $150. The same price goes for Northwestern. The cheapest seats for the season will be $40 upper level tickets for the Akron and UMass games. The same seats will go for $100 when the Buckeyes come to Beaver Stadium.

If you phone PSU's ticket office and tell them that you're an OSU fan, they should be able to give you a discount price. After all, they are charging $200 because Ohio State is PSU's "bitter rival." Since PSU is not a rival of Ohio State, though, they can charge us $100 for a ticket.

At some point, this may kill the secondary market. What scalper will go out and buy 20-40 tickets at $200 face value and turn around to sell them for $200 or less. At that point, you end up with a lot of empty seats in the stadium (see picture above).

At a time when many pro and college teams are having difficulty selling out their stadiums, Penn State decides to jump on the dynamic pricing bandwagon. The universities running these big-time athletic programs are delusional in judging their worth in this economy and desperate for revenue. Not a great combination.